Reviews

Ms Goldberg makes friends by offering her husbands clothing to a neighbor at wholesale (an illegal practice, which the neighbor at first chastises her for) then, Goldberg chums up with another "fatty" nudge nudge- Hey, we both like food amiright? which insults the pudgy neighbor. Ms Goldberg at first is a persona non grata in the area, as her attempts at friendmaking A) expose her as a criminal with the wholesale offer B) insults pudgy lady next door and C) offers a strange boy a cookie which gives him a potentially fatal allergic reaction. Had Ms Goldberg moved next door to me, I may not have been so forgiving as her TV buddies were- and they were, inexplicably. For some unknown reason, her new neighbors suddenly fall in love with her in spite of her damaging and illegal activities. If anything, she should have been run out of town. The show is a bad influence- by winking at crime and obesity, among other things. This is quite telling, considering all of the Red scares and Leftist activity at the time. The show is desperately cloying, with nothing complicated and everything "Gold boig" a big, epitome of Jewishness that is too much to bear.

Reviewer:lancelotlmg -
-
August 1, 2009 Subject:
The new neighbors are what?

With the release of Aviva Kempner's documentary about Gertrude Berg, Yoo Hoo Mrs Goldberg, the Archive proves its worth once again by offering us the documents. I doubt The Goldbergs, or any other show, for that matter, can lay claim to 'inventing' the sitcom-- that's like the running Old Time Radio gag about how 'I invented the singing commercial'--but it can likely claim the first ethnic one. Everything stereotyped as Jewish is presented here, except of course, for the word itself. Molly Goldberg bears striking resemblance as a yiddish forebear of Aunt Bee, and 'the suburbs' is as foreign as Mayberry. The lack of canned laughter is refreshing, and the characters are admirably real. Worth viewing, not simply as a cultural curio, but for Ms. Berg's and company's underappreciated talents. Dobie Gillis or Bob Newhart fans will be delighted to watch Florida Friebus as an added treat.